Why We Can't Wait

In “New Day in Birmingham,” King discuss the early days of the direct-action campaign in Birmingham in 1963. Although there was a general sense of racial optimism after moderate Albert Boutwell won the mayoral election, King and his cohort knew that Boutwell was still a segregationist. Even worse, ambiguities in Alabama’s election laws meant that two governments were leading the city while the courts decided whether Bull Connor and the commissioners who lost the election were right in claiming that they did not have to give up their seats to Boutwell’s administration until 1965. The SCLC’s response to the uncertainty was to limit their campaigns to modest, well-planned sit-ins.

In the meanwhile, the SCLC and local leadership led large meetings at churches to inspire the local African-American citizenry to action. Beyond the speeches, these meetings included rousingfreedom songs. These songs tapped into a desire for freedom that went all the way back to the days of slavery and that allowed even young people to face Bull Connor with courage. Another important part of the meetings was the solicitation of volunteers. Those who volunteered to be arrested had to sign a pledge to follow the precepts of nonviolence and Christianity.

Those volunteers who were accepted to march or demonstrate underwent realistic training that acclimated them to the violence they could expect to face. King points out that not everyone was able to embrace nonviolence. For this demographic, the organizers found other support duties, such as running errands. King includes the text of the commitment volunteers made and a list of other ways people could participate.

In Part Two of the chapter, King discusses problems the SCLC encountered in their plans for him to submit to arrest. The first problem was opposition to the protests. King argues that resistance from local black ministers and businesspeople stemmed from racial brainwashing that led some to accept white supremacy, “false optimism” over Boutwell,and their misunderstanding of the secrecy King and others were forced to use in their planning (71). The national press also gave the planned campaign negative coverage because many (including Attorney General Robert Kennedy) felt these organizations should give Boutwell a chance before protesting.

To counter this opposition, King and his staff met with local groups, a step that converted skepticism to support once King explained the reason for the secrecy and argued against the timing objection by appealing to the moral responsibility that ministers hold in African-American communities. “The social gospel” he outlined to them focused on the importance of improving social conditions for believers (73). King also pointed out to them that the SCLC was there at the invitation of Shuttlesworth’s ACMHR, so King and his staff were not outsiders coming in to cause trouble. King also reframed the civil rights struggle as a national one that transcended local and state boundaries. In King’s assessment, the success of the 1963 Birmingham civil-rights campaign indicates that his appeals worked.

In Part Three, King describes the escalation of the protests and the powerful impact of the boycott on merchants. Having learned from the example of Chief Laurie Pratchett in Albany, Georgia, Bull Connor at first took a nonviolent approach to policing the protestors. Connor also attempted to use the courts to block the protests by getting the courts to issue an injunction to stop the protestors.

For the first time, protestors decided to disobey a court order, believing that it violated their First Amendment rights and was simply a stalling tactic, since the courts were slow to act on legal challenges to such injunctions. King’s argument was that violating the order was a form of civil disobedience, a proper response since the law was being used to “perpetuate injustice and segregation” (78). Connor and others were initially unsure of how to respond to this new development.

Unfortunately, King and his staff received word in advance of the April 12 protests that the person who had served as their bail bondsman had been deemed by the city to have insufficient funds to back the bonds for protestors who had been arrested. Without these funds, protestors would have to stay in jail. The SCLC had exhausted all of its funds and King, who was ready to make a statement by submitting himself to arrest, was the only one who could raise the funds they’d need to make up the shortfall. After deliberating with his team about what to do, King went to think by himself. He concluded that “there was no room for doubt” that would emerge if he failed to show up to be arrested (81). On the basis of his faith, he believed that God would provide for them.

King, as expected, was arrested. Connor separated Abernathy and King from the others, put King by himself in solitary confinement, and blocked his access to his lawyers. The darkness of the cells and the inability to communicate with his wife, Coretta, who did not accompany him to Birmingham because she had just given birth to their daughter, depressed King. Mrs. Kingintervened by calling Robert Kennedy to say that she feared for King’s safety. Shortly thereafter, King was allowed to call his wife.

When King’s lawyers came to visit him on Easter Sunday, they brought the welcome news that Harry Belafonte had raised $50,000 for their immediate use and was available to raise more should they need it. This outcome convinced King that “God’s companionshipdoes not stop at the door of a jail” (84).